The flora of the Russian Far East is rich and diverse. This region
of Russia has considerable resources of valuable varieties of medicinal
plants. The official Russian medicine uses 35 to 40 varieties of raw
materials which are harvested from Far Eastern wild plants. Having the
biggest commercial importance are the following plants: spiny
eleutherococcus (Eleutherococcus senticosus Rupr et Maxim), Manchurian
aralia (Aralia mandshurica Rupr et Maxim = A. elata Miq Seem), Chinese
magnolia vine (Schisandra chinensis Turcz Baill), cowberry (Vaccinium
vitis-idaea L, Rhodococcum vitis-idaea Avror), marsh tea (Ledum palustre
L) and hagi (Lespedeza bicolor Turcz). Despite considerable harvest
volumes, the raw material reserves are many times greater than the
actual harvest. Popular and empirical medicines use almost half of all
the species that grow in the Far East. They represent a huge potential
of modern pharmacy and medicine. An interesting and promising group is
comprised of vicarious species of medicinal plants which number at least
70 in the Russian Far East.

The article gives examples of using some of these Far Eastern plant
species. Publications on the main commercial plant species of the
Russian Far East are planned in the future.

The flora of the Russian Far East is very rich and is attractive
for both practical use and detailed study. There are around 4000 species
of plants growing in the Russian Far East including cosmopolites and
endemic species, relic species of the preglacial period and relatively
young species, including the alien ones. In the Far Eastern taiga the
southern species grow alongside the northern species: it is quite
natural to see a leafy kolomikta vine Actinidia kolomicta (Maxim)Maxim
entwining a great Korean cedar Pinus koraiensis Siebold et Zucc
(Cherepanov 1995).

The richness of the Russian Far Eastern flora is not only in its
species diversity but also in the considerable reserve of valuable
medicinal plants. The latter fact is of great importance since Russia
has been traditionally using wild plants alongside the cultivated plants
for obtaining raw materials for medicinal purposes, with wild plants
constituting at least half of all the officinal kinds of medicinal
plants. (Officinal species of medicinal plants are the plant species
that are allowed to be used in the official medical practice of Russia.
They are included in the State Register of Drugs of the Russian
Federation. All the officinal types of raw materials and all the drugs
that are made from them are regulated by the corresponding state quality
standards: Pharmacopoeial Clauses).

Of all the officinal plants included in the State Register of Drugs
of the Russian Federation, over 60 species are found in the Far East.
They belong to various genera and families, are characterised by
different pharmacological properties and have different resource
characteristics and, correspondingly, different purveyance importance.

Despite considerable procurement volumes of the above species,
ranging from tens to hundreds of tons, the natural reserves are many
times bigger than annual procurements. Thus the procurement volumes of
underground parts of eleutherococcus, which is the main commercial
leader of the Russian Far East, are 300 to 500 tons per year (Sukhomirov
2007). The reserves of this raw material are estimated at 83,200 tons
and it is possible to harvest up to 2,900 tons a year without causing
damage to the shrub.

The yield of aralia root is estimated at 11,600 tons, possible
annual harvest volume is 400 tons while the actual procurement volume is
10 times less. The average annual harvest of cowberry leaves is 6 tons
with 6 thousand tons of berries while the possible production stock is
24,000 tons for leaves and 72,000 tons for berries with the actual
reserves in the territory of the Far East being 1,200,000 tons of leaves
and 600,000 tons of berries (Nechaev 2006).

The procured raw herbal materials are used primarily for preparing
drugs. Provided below are several examples.

The marsh tea (Ledum palustre) is recommended as an expectorant,
anti-inflammatory and anti-microbial agent for treatment of
bronchopulmonary diseases. In Russia the offshoots of the marsh tea are
used to produce Ledin tablets which are recommended for treatment of
diseases of upper and lower air passages with frequent, primarily dry
cough. The main active substance of Ledin is ledol, a tricyclic
sesquiterpenoid, its amount determining the quality of the marsh tea raw
material. The quantity of ledol in offshoots is determined by the
gas-liquid chromatography method (GLCh).

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Russia's official medicine considers cowberries (Vaccinium
vitis-idaea) to be diuretic. Used as the drug raw material are the
leaves, their quality being determined by the quantity of the main
pharmacologically active substance, arbutin. The cowberry leaves have a
diuretic, antimicrobial, anti-inflammatory and capillary strengthening
effect and regulate nitrogenous and mineral metabolism. The cowberry
leaves are dispensed in packages for making decoctions, and used as
ingredients of teas including two original formulae developed at the
Far-Eastern State Medical University.

In the official medical practice of Russia, hagi (Lespedeza
bicolour) is used in much the same way as the North-American species of
round-headed bush-clover (Lespedeza capitata). The flowering offshoots
of hagi are used to make Lespeflan, a liquid medication possessing
hypoazotemic, anti-inflammatory and diuretic effect. Another preparation
licensed in Russia is Lespenephryl made by UCB SA Health Care, Pliva
d.d, Laboratoires Freice (France), produced from round-headed
bush-clover. Lespeflan is recommended for treatment of chronic renal
insufficiency of various origins. The quality of the raw hagi plant and
medicinal preparation is assessed by the amount of flavonoids they
contain.

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Some medicinal plants are also used as food plants. This mainly
applies to wild fruits such as those from Schisandra chinensis,
snowball-tree Viburnum sargentii Koehne, wild ash (Sorbus amurensis
Koehne S. discolor auct), bilberry (Vaccinium myrtillus), wild rose
(Rosa spp), bird cherry (Padus asiatica Kom), and hawthorn (Crataegus
spp). The local population uses them to make juices, stewed fruits,
jellies and home preserves for future use. These and other kinds of wild
fruit are used in the food industry and for production of biologically
active supplements.

Other popular plants include blueberries, cranberries (Oxycoccus
palustris) (= Vaccinium oxycoccos) and honeysuckle (Lonicera edulis
Turcz. ex Freyn) which, although belonging to the food plant category,
are also widely used as medicinal plants. In 2002 there was 570 tons of
wild berries harvested in Khabarovsk and Primorsky territories, not
including the stocks of the local population for their own consumption
(Gerasimenko 2003). The main types of berry plants of the Russian Far
East are cowberry, blueberry and cranberry. Berry harvesting is based on
16 main varieties though there are 43 varieties which are harvested to
one extent or another.

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It should be noted that there is about 120,000 tons of wild berries
in the production stock of the Far East; the estimated annual harvest
being 70,000 tons (Sukhomirov 2007).

The range of the harvested raw materials has somewhat expanded over
the past decade due to Russia's official recognition of
biologically active nutritional supplements. Despite the fact that the
assortment of biologically active nutritional supplements produced from
far-eastern raw materials compares well with the assortment of medicinal
preparations, there have been no substantial changes in the range of the
harvested products since the plant-based nutritional supplements are
produced mainly from the long popular and well-studied medicinal plants
belonging to officinal varieties while the medicinal plants from
empirical medicines are used only occasionally.

It should be noted that about half of the Far Eastern plant species
are used in popular and traditional medicine. The information about
various methods of plant usage relates to at least 1,100 species
(Shreter 1975). These species are of extraordinary interest for both the
modern medical science and practice.

Among the other popular plants of ethno-medicine of the Russian Far
East are the peonies: Paeonia lactiflora Pall. (P. albiflora Pall.) and
Paeonia obovata Maxim. (P. japonica Makino). Both plants are used in
Chinese, Tibetan and popular medicine of various peoples.

Paeonia lactiflora is used in treatment of gynaecological diseases
and diseases of the gastrointestinal tract; it is known for its
sedative, spasmolytic, anti-inflammatory and expectorative action.
Paeonia obovata is used for conditions such as diseases of the
gastrointestinal tract, headaches, epilepsy and cough. The local
population of the Russian Far East nicknamed this variety of peony
'a little dashing flower'; it is an adaptogen, tonic and
immunostimulant (Shreter 1975).

Another remedy of ethno and empirical medicine which is still very
popular is yellow sophora (Sophora flavescens Soland, S. angustifolia
Siebold et Zucc, S. flavescens subsp. angustifolia Yakovl). Sophora
flavescens is used in the treatment of disorders of the gastrointestinal
tract, upper air passages, wound healing, as well as having diuretic and
febrifuge action. Yellow sophora is used in the modern popular
phytotherapy of the Russian Far East as a remedy for diseases of
gastrointestinal tract, mainly the stomach ulcer (Shreter 1975).

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Vicarious species (closely kindred to officinal ones) comprise a
special group of medicinal plants of the Russian Far East. There are 70
such varieties. For example narrow-leaved nettle (Urtica angustifolia
Fisch. ex Hornem) is widespread in the Far East, where the great nettle
(Urtica dioica L) is widespread in Europe; northern tansy (Tanacetum
boreale Fisch) is widespread instead of the common tansy (Tanacetum
vulgare L), Far-East wild strawberry (Fragaria orientalis Losinsk)
instead of European wood strawberry (Fragaria vesca L), Keiskei
lily-of-the-valley (Convallaria keiskei Miq) instead of
lily-of-the-valley (Convallaria majalis).

Despite their unofficial status, the species that are closely
kindred to officinal species are often as good as the latter, and
sometimes even have certain advantages (Stepanova 2006). This group of
medicinal plants is of scientific and practical interest due to the more
severe vegetation conditions proving more stable and adaptable than
their next of kin which grow in more favourable conditions. As a result
their properties can be more useful than those of their kindred species.

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The study of vicarious species of the Far East medicinal plants has
been the leading area of research of the Chair of Pharmacognosy and
Botany of the Far-Eastern State Medical University for 20 years.

In our next publications we would like to concentrate on some of
the most popular medicinal plants of the Russian Far East.

Tatyana Alexeyevna Stepanova is Deputy Head of the Chair of
Pharmacognosy and Botany of the Far-Eastern State Medical University,
Ph.D. in Pharmaceutical Sciences, Professor. Areas of scientific
interest: pharmacognostic study of medicinal plants, especially
vicarious species; comparative chemical, pharmacological and botanic
study of closely kindred species; development of plant-based
preparations, standardisation of medicinal plant raw materials and
phytopreparations.

Oleg Vladimirovich Stusenko is General Director of the Far Eastern
Centre for Biological and Pharmaceutical Research Phytoplan, member of
the Board of Directors of Khabarovskaya Farmatsiya company, General
Director of Samar Pharmaceutical Company. Sphere of activity:
pharmaceutical marketing, project management.